Chapter 4:

He didn't have long to prepare, but he already had a strategy. He was going to modify one of their attack formations plans, replacing his friends with shadow clones. It would be too risky to involve them, and Sarada would try to talk him out of it. Either that or inform the adults, saying it was for his own good.

Unfortunately for Boruto, Sarada caught him making preparations while fuming about his idiot father as he stormed about angrily. She asked about his intentions and, without telling her his plan, informed her that he was going to follow Naruto to his next meeting and make him see reason.

"Boruto, can't you trust that your dad's making the right call?"

"He's making a stupid decision and I'm going to stop him."

Sarada put her hands on her hips. "This is crazy. Boruto, you can't do this. Just let the adults handle this."

He was so tired of hearing that. The adults didn't know what they were doing. Their decision affected all of the village, including him, so he felt he deserved a say.

"Sarada… a king is threatening to declare war on the Leaf unless my dad gives in to his demands."

Sarada paused, stunned by this new information. "What kind of demands?" she asked.

Boruto sighed with his back to her. "He wants Kai back."

Sarada understood immediately. "Oh, so it's that king." She shook her head. "I was wondering if Kai's sudden disappearance would lead to something like this."

"He doesn't get that Kai's a donkey and even if he did, that won't change the fact that he wants him back." Boruto started moving around again, restless. "I can't let that happen."

"Well, then that's fine. You don't have to do anything," Sarada told him.

Boruto spun around. "What are you talking about?"

"What happened to Kai wasn't really our fault, if you think about it. And even if it was, there's not much we can do about it. It's not a jutsu but a spirit's magic. That's out of our hands. Even if we wanted to do something, we couldn't."

"That doesn't matter," argued Boruto. "The king's going to declare war unless he gets his way."

"Which is an act of terrorism and the Hokage is under no obligation to heed his demands." Sarada folded her arms knowingly. "Besides, he can't just declare war. There are systems in place to prevent that. Papers have to be signed, and both parties have to agree to certain things, and people have to be organized. He can't just do it."

"What's stopping him?" asked Boruto. "People have attacked civilian villages all the time without so much as a warning. You think some protocol is going to stop him?"

"He can't send his troops into battle the next day. He'd have to make a plan. Besides, it would be pretty stupid of him to try declaring war on a shinobi village. We outrank him in terms of power and skill. Maybe even number, depending."

"He knows where we are. He sent us a letter of his demands."

"That doesn't mean a thing," said Sarada. "Sending a letter is a little different than finding the place on foot. And we are a ninja village, remember? We're aware there might be enemies trying to find us. We're not exactly easy to find without help."

"But he knows where we are," he repeated, trying to make her understand.

"That doesn't matter. We have trained shinobi who will see an army coming before they arrive at the gate. We can use jutsu which can overpower their spears and swords. Don't worry."

Boruto gritted his teeth. "What if he uses his money to buy people to come over to his side? He could hire shinobi to fight for him."

Sarada smirked. "Well, that's what I admire about the Hokage," she told him. "He's made such good connections with people of other lands that they cannot be bought. If the king tried to buy the Sand's cooperation, they'd refuse on the spot. Remember that Shikadai's mom's from the Sand. They'd never attack us. Plus, the Hokage and Kazekage are friends. More reason they cannot be bought."

"There are other villages, you know."

"So?" she answered. "A lot of them are allied with the Leaf. They wouldn't attack us, even if paid to do so. Besides, the glitter of money might blind them to the truth of what could actually happen as a result of war."

"Huh?" Boruto cocked his head.

"They have no qualms with the Leaf. Even if the king gives them a lot of money to attack us, then what? Then the Leaf and its other allies will respond in kind to the one village's attack. Now they're losing men at an alarming rate and that money has already been spent on battle supplies and rations. It won't cover the cost of damage. They'd be losing money. It's not a wise thing to do. Once they realize that, the glitter will fade and they'll see it's a poor investment."

"And if they don't get that?" Boruto asked. "Some people take money and don't think about what it's for. If they're being paid to do a mission, they can't refuse."

"Yes, they can," said Sarada. "Depending on the mission details, a shinobi can decline, especially if there's a conflict of interest. Your dad attends meetings about just that. Deciding if a mission request is worth taking. If it will cause more damage than it's worth, the village can refuse to accept the mission. Don't you pay any attention to this stuff? The village sometimes gets missions that are beyond our skills, leading to refusal. You should know that just from the missions we've been on that turn out to be more advanced and some experienced shinobi take over."

Wanting to be Hokage one day, Sarada started studying what that job entailed and discovered just how complicated it was. Not much was available to the public, but it was common knowledge that if there was a job to be done, it likely fell to the Hokage. Whatever she hadn't learned in school or from books was picked up from listening to what the adults around her said. She was surprised Boruto didn't know a lot of this since some of it was screamed at him when he barged in making demands. Then again, he probably tuned them out.

"Boruto, I'm sure the Hokage has this under control. Would you let him do his job and not make things worse?"

"He's going to make it worse!" Boruto shouted. "I know he's going to find a way to bring Kai back to please the king. You know what he's like. Kai's too dangerous to bring back."

"I don't see how he could," Sarada told him. "The Hokage doesn't have the power to change him back into a human."

"But the kitsune do. They could. And since he's friends with them, they'd do it."

Sarada put her hands on her hips. "I doubt they would be willing. Kai isn't their friend and he is a human, and you heard several times how they don't get involved with human problems. And if Kai's a threat to them, they'd refuse even the Hokage."

"And if they don't, the king declares war. It's a no-win situation. They're going to pick the lesser of the two, which means Kai will return."

"But they can't," Sarada told him firmly. "Don't you see? If they can't do it, they can't do it."

"And if the king doesn't accept that?" Boruto shook his head. "I'm not letting war break out. And I'm not letting my dad do something dumb. He doesn't get it."

"Boruto…"

"He doesn't know what Kai's like, but I do. He never met the guy, but we did. He's too dangerous. I'm stopping him."

Sarada threw up her hands in aggravation. "What's this about, Boruto? Why are you getting so worked up over this?"

"Because the king's an arrogant ass and Kai's a dangerous tyrant! It's a bad move. Kai can't do anything as a donkey, so let him stay like that."

Sarada knew she wasn't going to get an answer from him so she didn't bother asking again. Knowing Boruto, he probably wasn't sure why he was getting so worked up over this situation. Instead, she again tried to make him understand that there really wasn't much of a problem and not one that they could solve.

"Boruto, listen to me. I know Kai's a bad guy, and so does a ton of others. So that's fine. There's no need to do anything."

"But Dad's going to try to bring him back and we can't let that happen."

"It can't happen. Boruto, would you listen? The Hokage can't bring Kai back. We don't want him to come back. So there's no problem. We can't deliver what the king wants, so there's nothing for you to worry about. We can't do it."

"But if he doesn't the village gets attacked," Boruto reminded her. "I know there's no way my dad would ever let that happen to the village, which means he'll have to bring Kai back."

"But if he can't-"

"Then we get attacked. Sarada, we're going in circles. Don't you get it? It's either war or Kai."

"And I'm telling you there's nothing for you to worry about. Kai can't be brought back because we don't have the skills to do it. And the king can't declare war that easily. It's probably an empty threat anyway made to scare us." Sarada folded her arms again. "That's probably the king's goal in the first place. Once he sees that the Hokage tried his best under that kind of pressure, he'll know there's nothing that can be done. To him, that was motivation."

"Or he means it."

"The king might be a showoff but would he really endanger the lives of himself and his people?"

"Uh, yeah!"

Sarada sighed. "You know, it's tradition for the king to be on the frontlines leading his troops to battle. He won't be on his throne pointing and barking orders. He'd have a sword, too. You really think he'd risk his life for something like this? It's petty at best."

"The king's an idiot. He'd probably do it."

"Even if he's dumb, he'd know his life would be in danger. He'd never risk it."

"Well, I'm not taking that chance!" Boruto shouted. He spun around and started to march down the street to finish gathering what he needed for the mission.

Sarada chased after him. "Boruto, I'm sure the Hokage and the others have it completely under control. Would you please let this go and not make it worse?"

"Ha! If anything, I'd be making it better."

Sarada put her hand on his shoulder, hoping to slow him down. "Listen. We have the day off tomorrow and I'm going to be helping my mom with something so I won't be able to keep an eye on you. Just promise me you won't do anything stupid while I'm not here to stop you, ok?"

That was a lie. They did have the day off tomorrow but Sakura was going to be busy at the hospital all day and trusted the household chores to her daughter. Their plans were for the next day, Sakura's way of making it up to her.

Which was fine, as far as Boruto was concerned. He hadn't mentioned when the next meeting was and had started making preparations today while he was still motivated and fueled by anger. This had led Sarada to believe Boruto was planning on doing something either today or tomorrow. If she sneaked away from whatever she was doing with her mother and saw him in the village, she'd assume he had listened to her and gave up his plans.

In actuality, the meeting was the day after tomorrow. This was going to work out perfectly for Boruto, he believed. Sarada would think he had given up for once and he had an extra day to prepare. Whether Sarada was lying or not was irrelevant.

"Ok, I promise," he told her.

"Really?" she asked, pressing her face close to his.

"I promise I won't do anything stupid tomorrow, ok?" Not that it mattered. Boruto didn't think what he was doing was stupid to begin with.

The next day, while Naruto worked out a strategy with Shikamaru, Boruto finished his preparations for tomorrow's events. His plan was to go to the same location as before to head them off, instead of following them like before. Naruto already said that they would be meeting again in the same spot, so he knew nothing else would change.

Stopping the king's army was going to be difficult to do on his own and even he wasn't sure how to go about it. As he predicted, Sarada tried to talk him out of it. Knowing she would be busy with her mother, Boruto was certain Sarada wouldn't have time to inform his mother about his plans, whether she had details or not.

Mitsuki had been with him during the meeting but Boruto didn't share any of his intentions with him, fearing Mitsuki would either try to talk him out of it or go along with him. All Mitsuki knew was that Boruto had planned to talk to his father about it and little else.

The king did not know their names but made it clear that he wanted to do something to them, blaming them for what happened to Kai. They were already at risk and Boruto was unwilling to put them in more danger by involving them with what he was about to do. If things went south, only he would be blamed.

Sarada would throw a wrench into his plans anyway, so there was no way he'd involve her. She might shout and let Naruto know where they were or hold him back like before when he tried to attack Kai in order to get the rice back. He trusted Mitsuki but he might take Sarada's side and try to talk him out of it. If not, he would try to convince Sarada and if she didn't go along with it, he might try to stop her. Either way, there was going to be a fight.

It wasn't safe to include them in this. He was doing this to protect them and make sure no one ruined his plans.

Having thought it over the past two days, Boruto had a couple of ideas for how to stop the king and his army from going after the Leaf and prevent Naruto from changing Kai back.

If the king expected results by the second day, he would probably bring Kai the donkey with him. In which case, all Boruto had to do was release Kai into the wild. Though Kai was a horrible person in his eyes, Boruto could not bring himself to kill Kai, human or animal. If Kai had an animal brain, he would run off. If he had a human mind, there might be resistance, but Boruto intended to scare Kai into running off. If that didn't happen, he'd chain Kai to a tree in the forest and leave him there.

No more donkey, no more problem. Naruto would not be able to change Kai back if he wasn't there. Boruto was certain that would settle things.

That part was easily resolved. It was the king's army that was the bigger problem.

Boruto had thought of a few different things he could do to stop the army that wouldn't cost any lives.

First option involved him calling another village for help, saying the king was threatening the Leaf, which he was, and having them come to support their ally. The king would get scared and withdraw. However, there was no way for Boruto to send a message to any village and expect a response in time. Even if they did respond, any message they sent would be brought to the Hokage first, alerting Naruto to his plans.

It seemed like a poor plan so Boruto decided not to send for help.

The second option involved bribing the king with a large sum of money to leave the Leaf Village alone. Since he knew the king liked money, he would likely fall for this. Unfortunately, the king was probably a businessman, judging from his wealth, and would expect to see the money Boruto did not have. Without payment, the king would send his army. If this worked at all, it would only stall matters for a short time.

Another option, which Boruto was leaning towards at this point in time, was him sabotaging the army. They all carried spears and swords which he could break or steal and hide somewhere. They would not be able to fight and the king would go broke trying to replace all their weapons. He doubted the king would be willing to spend any of his money anyway, so if the weapons were stolen or damaged, they would probably not be replaced and therefore give up.

The other option he came up with included scaring the king and his army. He could pretend to be a shinobi army with his clones. Even though he couldn't make as many as his father could, it would still get the job done, he thought. He could also do what he had seen the kitsune do and use jutsu to look bigger and scarier than he was. He would use his wind-style to alarm them and transform into something big to frighten them away.

If that didn't work or if that last option needed a little help, he had grabbed as many explosives as he could and planned to stash them throughout the area and set them off to scare them and make huge holes in the ground that would cause the wheels to come off their wagons and create an obstacle they could not easily get around. These men were not shinobi, so he expected them to give up easily. They would not be able to jump around those holes in the ground and if their wagons could not move, they would have to abandon them.

Boruto checked to make sure everything was in his bag for tomorrow. He'd set out early and stop this war from happening.